Thank you to everyone who has so willingly supported our COVID safe practices over the past weeks to strive to keep our community safe. We will continue to encourage strict use of the masks by our staff, senior students and essential visitors. Any changes to protocols will be communicated to the school community as soon as we are made aware. Please pray that this current situation will ease and the danger to our communities will soon be gone. At this time we offer our sincerest sympathy to the Win-Cohen family who have lost two members of their immediate family in Myanmar (Burma) to the COVID pandemic raging through their country.  Pease keep this family in your prayers.

Please don’t forget the urgency we have around enrolments in planning for next year. 2022 staffing is under review at the Canberra Head office of Catholic Education and we are busy preparing projected enrolments for an accurate staffing allocation. If you are aware that there are potential enrolments for 2022 please encourage them to make contact with the Front Office or conversely, if you are intending for alternate arrangements for your student next year we would really appreciate that you also contact the school. I am very happy if you need to ring and confidentially discuss your plans. Likewise, anyone who is considering enrolling their children but would like more information are also invited to have a tour and discussion around what the school can offer without making a commitment. We would like to be able to promote what a wonderful school we have so that everyone can make an informed decision.

Our School Counsellor Mrs Samantha Price will hopefully be returning to school next week and will be back seeing our students. Her husband is making good progress but it will be a long convalescence and there may be times when Sam will need to be away from school. We will continue to support our students as best we can and have been offered some tele-health options if we deem them necessary.

Now that we have shifted across to the COMPASS platform for our attendance records I receive an update of students who are absent every morning. This is an excellent way for us to stay across attendance and monitor absences. We are prioritising attendance at school as a way to help students stay connected and learning. Teachers will be making contact regarding absences to see how we can support students and address any issues that are keeping students away from school. It is also important to note that when a student is away there is an expectation that they make an effort to catch up on the work they have missed by contacting their teachers and completing the work covered. If you are ever concerned about the missed work please make contact with the secondary PCA for advice and guidance.

So too with our new COMPASS system there is a requirement that parents sign in their children when they are late to school. As a duty-of-care requirement we need to have parents’ confirmation that the students were with them and to explain the absence. Please do not just drop them off and permit the student to sign themselves in. Thank you for your support in this matter.

We are still debating the best way to tackle the issue of vaping that is endemic in so many schools at the moment. We are trying to build an honest and true picture of what is happening in our school but we are concerned that it is becoming more widespread than we originally thought. Please have the discussion with your children around this issue and the harmful and illegal situation that this is creating. The police have confirmed that they would like to speak to the students and include health professionals in these discussions to accurately detail the harm that vaping is causing. As a staff, and a system, we are trying to navigate the best way to deter students from this activity and to put in place protective and preventative measures to stop this from happening in our school. We have determined that it is necessary to have parents involved with students who participate or who are present when this is happening. We will continue to seek advice from other schools and experts on how to deal with this.

NOTE from the Canteen: Please remember to have online orders for the canteen MUST be in by 9.30am to ensure that they are prepared ready for an 11.05 lunch. Thank you

Remember: If you can be anything…be kind!

God Bless!

Mrs Nicky Trinder

Principal

White_Card.pdf

White Card - $120

Semester 1 2021 - Pool use Payments is now overdue

Infants Learn-to-Swim Program by 6th August

Current guidelines from CE

Thank you for your inquiries regarding interschool sport and particularly NRL activities.

We have considered this and provide the following advice which we are happy for you to advise the community. We thank you for your understanding and we appreciate this is a difficult community issue, when other schools are taking different approaches. 

The Catholic Education Office, COVID-19 Incident Management Team has discussed this sporting activity and determined it is not appropriate for our Schools teams to participate in this, given the current cases in NSW including in regional NSW. We understand this may be considered by some of our community to not be a reasonable decision given other NSW Schools may be attending. We have however determined within our Archdiocese this is the most appropriate decision for the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff. 

We are hoping that this will be reviewed soon. As a result however, we will wait to send home notes for:

- Primary: Trent Barrett and Woolworths Cricket Blast

- Secondary: Small Schools League, CG Athletics, CG Netball

Western Region Athletics

We are still waiting on a date for Western Region, and will update you as soon as we know. This may affect the date of the C&G Athletics carnival. 

Secondary Sport

Swimming Notes

To complete money collection for the end of the financial year, a note for swimming attendance for Semester 1 has gone home this week. Please finalise any outstanding money as soon as possible and contact Megan Withers or Emma Deep if you have any concerns.

Sport Updates

Participation in ALL planned events has been put on hold as per CE guidelines.

Secondary Sport Dates

If you are concerned about anything to do with PE or Sport, please arrange a meeting or get in contact with me at your earliest convenience. I can be contacted at megan.withers@cg.catholic.edu.au or on 02 69422612 during school hours. 

Regards

Megan Withers

Secondary Sports Coordinator